Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Director General Wilkins Villanueva has disclosed that “puppet masters in and outside” of the Philippines are behind the continuous proliferation of illegal drugs in the country.
The revelation came after PDEA and the Philippine National Police (PNP) seized last week in its latest drug operations some P5.2 billion worth of shabu in Bulacan province and Parañaque City.
“Ang mga nakukuha natin is bulk. Ang dulo nito, immediate is bodegero. [So] we still have to find ‘yung talagang puppet masters, ‘yung nagpapagalaw sa kanila,” Villanueva said in a press briefing on Monday.
“Ang problema dito, sa nagpapagalaw sa kanila, hindi ito nagbebenta ng droga, hindi ito naglalaglag. It’s only calls at utos,” he added.
According to Villanueva, the reason why the anti-narcotics agents could not easily catch those “puppet masters” is because of the anti-wiretapping law.
“So, itong puppet masters na to, talagang hindi natin makukuha ito, unless ‘yung amendment ng anti-wiretapping bill, dahil dito natin makukuha, sila ‘yung nagpapagalaw eh,” he noted.
Villanueva said that illegal drugs will continue to go inside the country for as long as those who control the “bodegeros,” or those who take care of shabu warehouses, are still on the loose.
However, he assured the public that both the PDEA and the PNP will go after them soon.
For the meantime, Villanueva said that they would conduct “profiling” on the latest haul through their packaging to know the country where the drugs came from.
On June 4, anti-narcotics police seized some P5 billion shabu after raiding a warehouse in Marilao, Bulacan — one of the biggest drug hauls in the government’s campaign against illegal drugs.
Arrested during the operation were Chinese national Yuwen Cai, and Filipino women Angela Tulio and Ma. Lyn Tulio.
Cai, according to PNP chief Gen. Archie Gamboa, was a trusted man of a drug syndicate while the two Filipinas could be associates tasked to do errands for the arrested foreigner.
Meanwhile, on June 6, police also seized P244 million worth of shabu in a buy-bust operation in Parañaque that led to the arrest of two women, including the daughter of Cai. (Joseph Pedrajas)